FLUBBER 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
2 :-( :-( for flying rubber
Cast: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Raymond Barry, Clancy Brown, Ted Levine, Wil Wheaton, Edie McClurg, voice of Jodi Benson Director: Les Mayfield Screenplay: John Hughes and Bill Walsh
In this Disney offering for Christmas, our children are presented with the latest in technological goo – FLUBBER i.e. flying rubber. Like most John Hughes movies he is out to entertain the juvenile masses with his usual slapstick style of mayhem-come-hurt-em comicness. How many laughs can be generated from flying bowling balls repeatedly rebounding off somebody's head? Lot's - that's if you're underage for both TITANIC and TOMMOROW NEVER DIES. The standard of comedy reaches the profound heights of FLUBBER shooting through the digestive system of an individual, before exploding out the poop shoot in a spectacular display of fireworks. It's the kind of grade six humour where farts, burps and bodily sounds sends kids into a state of uproar; and perhaps the sought of humour which should be left in the privacy of a classroom.
Sadly, our children are taught nothing from this movie. They are undeniably entertained but no lesson is learnt. Where are those wonderful holiday children's movies like BABE, MATILDA, A LITTLE PRINCESS where entertainment and learning are rolled into one. Instead our children are introduced to abstract adult themes like Cybersex. I found the topic particularly fascinating, having a particularly close relationship with my own computer, but this is not your everyday topic for show and tell.
In this movie two females, a college professor (Sara Jane Reynolds) and a flying robot Weebo, vie for the love of an absent-minded scientist (Robin Williams). The robot in question projects an image of a woman in a nightie before entering the bedroom of her master to plant a kiss on his lips. When the robot in question awaits death, she tells the scientist of her secret love for him and also about the love child carrying a bit of both of them inside it. When it comes to sex, children always want to know how and why. So how does a parent explain to a young child that computers and humans can't copulate? Just when you thought you hit home run with your lessons on the birds and the bees, here comes a puzzling scenario of a computer with claims to immaculate conception. How to tie it in with the Christmas Story?
FLUBBER isn't a poorly made children's movie by any means, it's just not a very good one. Robin Williams plays second fiddle to the flying elastic compound and sadly loses every scene to the special effects department. The super goo that has a life force of its own and makes possible the impossible, is also every bit the fluffy material daydreams are made off. It comes as a big let down when you finally wake up to reality and realise that the chemistry experiment has just blown up in your face - very disappointing overall.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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